It is exceptionally rare these days to see small office printers connected to a computer. The days of USB and parallel cables are long gone for most of us and replaced with the simplicity of a single Ethernet connection. With network printing, the problems associated with crashing print servers, overloaded print ques and installation nightmares are greatly simplified. While the ML-7300N can be connected to a single computer, it is in its element when connected to an Ethernet network.

For each and every computer to
access the printer, Samsung's SyncThru software need only be installed. Once the printer is visible on the network users can take advantage of the ML-7300N's 21 page per minute print speed and 1200x1200dpi resolution. The black and white laser printer is equipped with a single tray capable of holding 500 sheets of legal or letter, and an additional second tray can be bought for even more capacity, or to separate legal and letter paper sources.

Powering the ML-7300N is a 100MHz PowerPC 603e processor with 16MB of on board DRAM. The printer can be upgraded to 128MB of memory with the use of an SIMM expansion slot. Toner life is 10,000 pages a month at 5% coverage, and the ML-7300N comes with a starter toner good for about 3,000 pages as a bonus.

Full duplex printing at 10 pages a minute is
possible, and the ML-7300N features a host of printing tools like; 16:1 N-up, watermarks, overlays, collating, poster printing and various media (envelopes, transparencies, card stock, labels). The printer is compatible with Windows operating systems, Linux and Mac OS's and supports full PCL6
emulation.

Cost per printed page sits at about $0.018 per page. The actual yield will undoubtedly be under 10,000 pages from a single cartridge. If we assume an actual yield of about 75% (images, and black sections throw off the assumed 5% print coverage of just text), the cost per page still sits at about $0.025 per page.

Naturally, individual costs per page depend on what tends to be printed
in your office, or home. For example, a legal office will tend to print mostly pages of raw text and this keeps things near the 5% coverage most toners are rated under. If users are printing mostly images, PDF's or web pages the coverage increases, and toner life consequently decreases. The cost of replacement toner cartridges is around $175.

The ML-7300N

The printer itself measures 16.8" x 17.4" x 11.9" and works with 120V AC. The
unit weighs 17Kg, and takes 70seconds to warm-up from a sleep setting. A cooling
fan on the side of the unit exhausts air from the heating element during
printing and does make a bit of noise, but nothing over that of your standard
printer.

The tray will hold 200 printed pages before it needs to be cleaned
out. The small flap folds up to keep paper in place.

At the bottom left is the power button, and
almost directly across is the small window on the paper tray that
indicates paper level.